Wolters named league player of the year

Courtesy: SDSU Sports Info Release: 03/07/2013 15:04:21

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SIOUX FALLS – The Summit League announced its regular season
awards on Thursday in a press conference in Sioux Falls, where they revealed
the selection of South Dakota State’s Nate Wolters as The Summit League Player
of the Year.

“He’s certainly deserving of the honor, I don’t think
anybody can question why he would be the player of the year when you look at
his stats, but more importantly how important he is to our team,” head coach
Scott Nagy said. “He’s definitely the best player in our league.”

Already a two-time All-Summit League First Team selection,
Wolters adds a third first team honor and becomes the 13th Jackrabbit to earn
league player of the year honors in SDSU history, the first in The Summit League,
and the first overall since Jason Sempsrott earned North Central Conference MVP
in 1997.

In addition to Wolters, the league also honored junior
Jordan Dykstra on the second team and senior Tony Fiegen on the honorable
mention squad.

“I think Jordan belongs on the second team, although I think
you can definitely make an argument for him being on the first team,
particularly with us being the number one seed and him averaging eight and a half
rebounds per game,” Nagy said. “The other thing is that he’s playing on a team
with someone averaging nearly 23 points per game, which definitely eats into
other people’s averages. We’re proud of Jordan and what he’s meant to our team,
so I think he’s deserving of the honor.”

Dykstra earns his second straight second team honor after
receiving all-newcomer team honors as a freshman in 2011, while Fiegen earns a
league honor for the first time in his career.

“We would’ve liked to have seen Tony on at least the second
team, because he means a lot to us,” Nagy said. “We’ve asked him to sacrifice a
lot in order to be one of our better defenders, but he’s certainly deserving of
honorable mention.”

All nine of the league’s head coaches, along withsport information directors and selects media
voted on the awards.

The Jackrabbits open The Summit League Championships on
Saturday as the No. 1 seed against No. 8 seed IUPUI at 6:05 p.m. at the Sioux Falls
Arena.